New AT&T phone to Cricket?

[MrLaserman]

Can one just buy an AT&T gophone from best buy and take it right to Cricket for service? Would it have to be unlocked or ever activated with gophone before taking it to Cricket?

Looking at the AT&T GoPhone Nokia Lumia 635 at Best Buy. A little better than the 630 Cricket carries.

 

[MrLaserman]

Hard to believe but Cricket customer service does not know the answer to this question. I was told the phone would have to be unlocked and GoPhone does not unlock their phones.

Tmobile is much easier to understand and deal with... maybe I'll just stick with them.

 

[jhawkkw]

This is correct. Even though Cricket runs on AT&T towers, the phone will need to be SIM unlocked in order to activate it successfully on their network.

 

[MrLaserman]

I won't be going to a lot of trouble or many steps to get where I want to go so I won't be trying out Cricket unless they get a phone I would really like to try out. If I decide I really want to try the 635 I'm already with tmobile so I'll just pony up the $130 for their version. In 12 years tmo has never done me wrong. I wanted to try another network in case of outages or coverage issues while they upgrade and build out but it's not worth it.

 

[MrLaserman]

I'm getting a lot of respones on another forum that several have said they personally have been successful doing what I'm asking so I'm getting conflicting info on this qusetion... some are saying yes and some are saying no but a few have said they have personal experience doing it. Question is... do I trust those posts. Oh well... I could just buy the 630 and be satisfied with it rather than the 635. I'm an older guy so I'm not going to go to too much trouble for anything.

 

[DonB]

I went through this same issue, a while back and I got conflicting reports from member and Aio at the time, I was also told it had to be unlocked, so I ended up buying an unlocked Moto X which I love, and I must say as for Cricket service, I would do it again. I was with Sprint for over 15 years and doing the switch over was well worth it, I never get dropped calls and coverage supersedes what I ever had with Sprint, and hell for unlimited calls, text, SMS, and 2.5Gb of data and capped to 3G after that which I never go over anyways, it cost me $45 per month taxes included.

But since I have had my service with Cricket, I have seen many that have purchased brand new phones not unlocked and were able to get it to work on Cricket service. If you buy your Nokia, does it have a return policy, if it does buy it try it to see if you can get it hooked up on Cricket then see, if it does then great, if it doesn't no harm done return it.

 

[MrLaserman]

Yes there is a return policy... the phone is at Best Buy which I think has a 14 or 15 day return policy. I forgot about that. Thanks!

 

[stevedec]

I won't be going to a lot of trouble or many steps to get where I want to go so I won't be trying out Cricket unless they get a phone I would really like to try out. If I decide I really want to try the 635 I'm already with tmobile so I'll just pony up the $130 for their version. In 12 years tmo has never done me wrong. I wanted to try another network in case of outages or coverage issues while they upgrade and build out but it's not worth it.

I was a TM customer for almost 5 years. They never did me wrong and I got a real deal on my Galaxy S2, contract and all, but the main reason I switched was coverage. AT&T coverage is better then TM in non-metro area and I proved it to myself on the last few trips I have taken.

 

[MrLaserman]

Fortunately I'm in a good area for Tmobile as well as Verizon and AT&T. (suburbs of Detoit) Sprint is the weak network here. All others are close to equal. So I can't really go wrong with any of the three good ones for coverage. I don't know about other spots but my Tmobile has always worked where ever I've traveled... which has been pretty much major cities all around the country. I like TMobile but I like having back up phones for both myself and my wife and I like for them to be on a different network... just to make sure we are covered well and everywhere when we do travel. Currently our back ups are running on AT&T's network. I know how that network is so that was another reason I was looking at Cricket.

 

[AUCLABruin]

I bought my father a Nokia Lumia 520 that was from the GoPhone brand and only set it up. It was activated on Aio (now Cricket) with no problem. The 635 should be able to be activated as long as it's the AT&T specific model, though I really do not see any difference in the 630 except that it's cheaper. Do not tell them it's locked to AT&T though, once they hear that they will refuse to test it to see that it connects. I'm not sure why they do this, but I had it done in one Cricket store on my own 920.

 

[Gmash]

I bought my father a Nokia Lumia 520 that was from the GoPhone brand and only set it up. It was activated on Aio (now Cricket) with no problem. The 635 should be able to be activated as long as it's the AT&T specific model, though I really do not see any difference in the 630 except that it's cheaper. Do not tell them it's locked to AT&T though, once they hear that they will refuse to test it to see that it connects. I'm not sure why they do this, but I had it done in one Cricket store on my own 920.

That's what I read. If they ask you, say it's unlocked, but they won't check.

 

[bascomp]

I see this is old, but just ordered go-phone from amazon lumia 635. Put cricket sim in and all worked perfect.

 

[AUCLABruin]

I see this is old, but just ordered go-phone from amazon lumia 635. Put cricket sim in and all worked perfect.

I got one on a lightning deal to replace a dying phone for my sister. Same process, no need to set things up, and works fine. I think you are also able to request unlocks from AT&T phones with no waiting period, but I don't think that is the case for Cricket. This can be an important factor for those buying a new phone to keep in mind.

 

[DonB]

No that is not true, I bought my wife's first phone from Cricket, and was able to sell it with no issues. It was unlocked from AIO/Cricket FYI

 

[dstephe9]

Cricket will unlock after 6 months of service free of charge. Just contact then via chat to request your code.. I had no issues unlocking my moto g then trading it into amazon as carrier unlocked

 

[dennygreen]

Why are these cricket sims so hard to come by? My unlocked phone is finally here, but the two stores in my town that come up on cricket's store site are Gamestops, and neither of them will sell me just the sim, without an activation fee. Also, the Walmart website says the sims are out of stock in all the stores here. I can't believe this is an actual business model in 2015 in the United States. I guess I'll be ordering from the website. Its a good thing I still have a week before my old phone is out of service.

 

[Gmash]

They make their money from those activation fees, so I'm not surprised.

 

[DonB]

I you actually go to a Cricket location you should have no issues, the ones that sell other stuff along with Cricket activation, usually want the activation set up charge. I guess it depends what city you are in, I know here they are not hard to come by. You could also call Cricket, they might be able to direct to a location in your area that does have them in stock.